


Eternity of Redemption

by wonker8



Series: Eternity of Redemption [1]
Category: Avengers Movie-verse
Genre: AU, F/M, Family is more trouble than worth, M/M, Natasha is a High Priest, Sif and Loki needs to work things out, Ullr!Clint
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-22
Updated: 2012-07-22
Packaged: 2017-11-11 23:29:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,947
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/484095
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wonker8/pseuds/wonker8
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The life of the God of Archery wasn't an easy one, especially when his mother and father (Sif and Loki, respectively) won't admit their feelings for each other.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Eternity of Redemption

**Author's Note:**

> This is a fill for [ Avengerskink prompt](http://avengerkink.livejournal.com/7940.html?thread=15190020#t15190020) where Clint is actually Ullr, the Norse God of Archery, and son of Sif.

“Oh hey, it’s Mjölnir,” Clint said as he walked by the strange item sticking out of the ground.

Phil paused. “Come again, Barton?”

“You know, Mjölnir. Thor’s hammer?”

The handler rolled his eyes, realizing a joke for what it is. “Hilarious, Barton,” he said drily. “Go and prepare your nest.”

Clint smiled and walked cockily away, putting on as much confidence and swagger as he could muster in case anyone could see the flicker of fear. Surely Thor was on Midgard, he thought with a frown. Did anyone else come along with him? Why was he here? And worst of all, why was Mjölnir here by itself without Thor around?  
*  
When Sif found out that she was pregnant, the first thing she did was punch Loki in the face. After a bit of yell-fest between the two, they came to a very simple agreement. They would never mention to anyone that Loki was the father or that they had shared a night together in bed. It seemed a good arrangement. Sif was trying to earn her place as a warrior despite being female, and Loki wasn’t exactly ready to raise a baby. A relationship wasn’t going to work out for either of them.

Loki told himself that he wasn’t disappointed. He told himself that it was okay, that it was only a matter of time before Sif came around. Until then, he would have to wait. And if that meant that he couldn’t tell his own son that they were related, then by Odin’s beard, he’d do it, because that was how much he loved Sif.

He hoped that Sif would see that one day.  
*  
Clint whistled to himself as he walked merrily through the streets. While the SHIELD base was set up around the Mjölnir, Clint had declared that he didn’t want to sleep there and gotten himself a dinky motel room for pretty cheap. The real reason was that this would allow him to find Thor. If the Thunder God was really in Midgard, then he was probably keeping himself hidden somewhere in a crowded place. Otherwise, the news media would have grabbed hold of Thor in a frenzy.

Now here was the problem: If Thor was on Midgard looking for Ullr, then something terrible must have happened on Asgard. Either that or Sif finally managed to track him down to Midgard. Either way, under no circumstances, could Thor meet Phil Coulson, lest he reports back to Sif. So Clint was going to keep watch in the town, looking for the familiar long blond hair from his childhood. All he could do was hope that his mother didn’t come along with Thor, because that would open a new can of worms that Clint just really didn’t want to deal with right now.

Or ever for that matter.

The last thing he wanted was for Sif to realize that her darling boy was dating a mortal. A _male_ mortal. A totally hot and sexy male mortal… Maybe Phil could just show off his battle scars and impress her?

Clint snorted at the thought.

“Something funny?”

The archer almost jumped out of his skin at the sound of Phil’s voice behind him. He turned around and gave Phil a perplexed look.

“What are you doing here, Coulson?” he demanded. Then he realized how loud he was and quickly lowered his voice. “You scared the shit out of me!”

The agent looked a little uncertain suddenly, and there was a flush of red across his cheek. “Wasn’t it an invitation?”

Clint blinked. “Huh? What was?”

“When you bragged to everyone about getting a motel away from the base…”

There was a slight pause as the archer’s brain went on a warp drive, trying to piece together what Phil was saying. “Oh. _Oh!_ You thought I was…?” An embarrassed blush covered Clint’s ears. “Gods, I mean, I would love to! It’s just… right now isn’t such a good time and-”

Phil’s shoulders dropped an inch and guilt flooded Clint’s system. If only Thor wasn’t here, this wouldn’t be a hard choice to make at all! But right now, figuring out what the problem was with his fake-father (as Ullr took to calling Thor) took the first priority.

“I’m sorry,” Clint said, regret clear in his voice. “But I should be free for dinner?”

There was a flicker of surprise before it was replaced with a pleased smile. “Okay,” Phil said. “I’ll see you then.”  
*  
Ullr was raised in the classic Norse tradition: with lots of battles and feasts. If he ever wondered who his father was, he never voiced it out loud. After all, he had Thor, who had declared himself his father-not-father (Ullr preferred the term ‘fake-father’), and three rather chill uncles, all who really loved to spoil him rotten. There was also Loki, who, although he hung out with Thor and the three, never really made himself familiar to Ullr.

Sif assured him that this was normal Loki behavior, and that he shouldn’t worry his little head over this. So Ullr didn’t.

Or he wouldn’t have except that Loki was the one who introduced him to archery. Loki was the one to give him his first bow and arrows. Loki was the one who taught him how to shoot. Loki taught him to plan, to think. Without Loki, Clint Barton wouldn’t have been half as good as he is now. And to be truthful, sometimes, Ullr pretended that Loki was his father, because he was sure a real father would treat him as kindly as the Trickster God did.

However, Ullr would have continued to believe that Loki was just a good mentor, someone who was shy in big crowds. He would have continued to believe in that until the day Sif found them in a reclusive spot in the garden and blew a fuse.

“You promised!” She accused, pointing a finger at Loki’s chest. “You said you’ll stay away!”

“I never said such thing,” Loki argued back, scowl firmly in place. “I said I wouldn’t breathe a world about _that_ , but I never said I wouldn’t talk to Ullr.”

And as the two continued to bicker, back and forth, quite like how Frigga and Odin did from time to time, the young god finally understood.

“Mom?” he asked, stopping the argument effectively with that single word. “Is Loki my father?”

Loki looked at him with warmth and pride, which was in perfect juxtaposition by the horror and grief in Sif’s face. Ullr knew right away that perhaps pointing that out was a bad thing to do.

“Yes,” Sif admitted finally. “You are Loki’s son.”

If Ullr thought that this admission meant that Loki would not only become a permanent fixture in his life as his father, he was proved so irrevocably wrong.  
*  
Clint drew his arrow back and froze at the sight before him. There was a giant of a man who was very easily taking down SHIELD agents left and right. The same giant of a man that Clint had been looking for hours earlier in the town. The same giant of a man who had once picked a young Ullr up on his shoulders so that the child-god could reach for a fruit on a tree. The same giant of a man who was obviously not pleased by SHIELD agents who were standing in his way to Mjölnir.

It was Thor.

And Phil Coulson wanted Clint to shoot him down.

Technically speaking, Clint Barton didn’t know who Thor was and would have no qualms about shooting him down. The only problem was that Clint Barton didn’t actually exist. It was an ID that Natasha had made for him when Ullr first came to Midgard. And Ullr would rather gouge out his eye than shoot his fake-father.

Decision made, Clint tracked the arrow on a nearby agent. The minute Phil gave the order, Ullr was going to shoot down the agents and help the God of Thunder escape. He hoped that Phil would eventually forgive him one day.  
*  
Sif and Loki argued a lot.

The others were beginning to notice, and Sif felt as if the whole world was closing in around her. She was drowning in the secrecy that she couldn’t let anyone find out about, and Loki wasn’t making this easier. He kept challenging her, asking her why. Why was she worried about others finding out about him? Why did she want to keep this quiet? Why was that more important than this family?

“Because we aren’t a family!” she finally shrieked back. “Because you make a terrible father and even worse husband! You never even looked at me twice after that night, and now suddenly you want to play family with me?”

Ullr left because he was getting sick and tired of listening to them argue. He left because he didn’t want a home like that. Maybe he shouldn’t have wanted Loki to be part of his family, because this was infinitely more painful than not having a father. Maybe he should have been happy with having Thor as his fake-father.

Convincing the Allfather was the easy part. Odin had accepted his reason: “I want to travel the world, gain knowledge by living amongst the people there.” Ullr secretly wondered if Odin knew his true heritage and was just helping out his grandson.

Well, that was what Ullr did. He travelled to different realms. He met the different inhabitants of the land, honed his skill as an archer, and had fun. Eventually, his travels took him to Midgard, where a beautiful redhead ran into him.  
*  
“Can I talk to him?” Clint asked, staring at the closed room with intense concentration.

“Your interrogation techniques aren’t required for this,” Phil said without looking away from the security camera that showed Thor in the room alone.

“No, I just want to talk.”

The agent looked up at that. He studied Clint’s face, which as always showed nothing. Phil sighed, “We’ll see.”  
*  
The redhead’s first words out of her mouth were, “I need a cover.” She looked at Ullr’s Asgardian armor and made a face. “Just stand in the background and don’t do anything.” Her eyes went back to the desert, tracking a black car that was heading their way, blowing dust cloud behind it.

Ullr didn’t know what that strange black thing that was making its way towards them was. But he understood that this beautiful lady needed cover, so he did the only thing he knew how to do.

“I guess I can tell him you’re into dressing up or something,” she mumbled to herself as she watched the way the car came closer and closer. “Some comic geek or whatever…”

There was a small ‘whoosh’ sound, and she turned around to look at Ullr. He had his bow up and his hands were up as if he had just released an arrow. Horror flashed in her eyes as she quickly turned around to look at the car. She watched as the arrow pierced through the windshield and lodged into the throat of the driver.

“What… the hell?” she asked. She turned to glare at Ullr. “Why the hell did you shoot him?”

“But… you said you wanted cover…?”

“Not that kind of cover! If I wanted him dead, he would be dead!” She tugged at her hair with frustration. “He had information. I needed cover to get close to him to get that information!”

“… Oh,” Ullr said softly. “I… I’m sorry I di-”

“You!” she yelled, pointing an accusing finger at his face. “You’re going to come with me until you’ve paid for this shit, got it?”

Ullr nodded slowly. He followed her to the car.

“Drive,” she said.

He gave her a blank look.

Sighing, she opened the driver’s seat and threw the body out. Then she got into the car and told Ullr to get into the passenger’s seat. They drove for a few minutes together until the lady let out a frustrated growl.

“You’re not from around here, are you?” she asked.

Ullr shrugged.

“Natasha Romanoff,” she said, holding up her hand. “And you are?”

“Ullr. God of Archery.”

She gave him a flat look. “No, seriously,” she said, “I meant your real name.”

“Ullr. God of Archery.”

And she would have continued to not believe him if not for a long and complicated mission complete with alien squids, a diamond mine, and archery magic. By the end, she helped set him up in the human world as Clinton Francis Barton and taught him how to blend in. And with a simple kiss on his cheek, she left him with a simple, “Keep my shots straight, Ullr.”  
*  
“Ullr.”

Clint looked up from watching Mjölnir with a start. A familiar god stood in front of him, decked in fancy armor and a surprised face.

“Oh hey, dad,” Ullr answered with an easy grin. “I thought you might show up here if I waited long enough.”

Loki smiled, a look of pleased wonder on his face. “So you were here on Midgard...” He held out his hand. “Come along, child. We’re returning home. And afterwards, you’re going to be severely punished for scaring your mother like that.”

“’Fraid not, pops.” Ullr loved the shock and horror on Loki’s face at the… mortal-like behavior he was exhibiting. “I rather like it here.”

Loki sighed. “You found someone, didn’t you?”

“Huh? How?!”

The God of Mischief rubbed his temples. Then he said, “Despite being my child, I swear you take more after Thor…”

“Well, seeing that he’s my uncle…”

Loki froze at those words. And from the dark expression on his face, Ullr realized right away that that wasn’t the case at all. He frowned. But Loki and Thor were brothers… weren’t they? Why would Odin lie about that?

“Dad, what happened while I was away?”  
*  
Few years after arriving on Midgard, Clint Barton was recruited to SHIELD and given Phil Coulson as his handler. After few months of working with the mortal, the God of Archery fell hard and fast in love. It took them two more years to actually become something with a semblance of a relationship.

Some more time down the line, Clint saw Natasha again. He had the order to shoot her down, to kill her. And he made a different call. And the two became the best of SHIELD under the guidance of Phil Coulson.  
*  
“What is that?” Phil asked as he stared at the giant robot in disbelief.

“That would be the Guardian,” Clint said.

Phil glared at his lover. “You know what’s going on, don’t you?”

Clint gave a sheepish shrug. “Maybe?”

“I expect a full re-”

“Phil, how do you feel about meeting my mom?”

The agent looked blankly at him. “Your mother is dead, Barton.”

“Ehehehe… about that…”  
*  
Sif froze at the sight of Ullr, decked in mortal clothing. In the background, that mortal girl Thor found was crying over the Thunder God’s wounded body, but right now, Sif had more important things to care about.

“Ullr?” she whispered.

He shrugged sheepishly and gave her a weak grin. “Hey mom.”

Her reaction was instantaneous. She ran to her little boy, slapped his back proudly, pulled him into a headlock, and proceeded to give him a noogie.

Phil Coulson was beyond amused.

“You little rascal!” Sif growled. In the background, Thor’s arm shot up and grabbed hold of Mjölnir. “You just disappeared on us! Did you seriously think I wouldn’t notice? My god, why do you have to be so much like your father?”

“Mom!” Ullr protested as he struggled to get out of the deathgrip. “That hurts! That actually hurts!”

“And do you even know what your father has done this time? That idiot-”

“I don’t want to hear about your arguing with dad, okay mom?” Ullr said. In the background, Thor began to beat down on the Guardian with his hammer. “And you have to listen to what he has to say first. You don’t have all the facts about what went down.”

She let out an unattractive snort and released her grip on Ullr’s head. “Right, because you do?”

“We actually had a nice civilized discussion, actually.”

She gave him a doubtful look. “Loki? Civilized?”

Ullr groaned. “Mom! For once, can you guys just talk it out or something? Everyone already knows that Loki’s my dad, so you might as well as let the whole ‘secrets’ thing be bygoners! Jeesh! I swear you’re worse than me and Phil sometimes!”

Sif’s eyes glistened. “Phil?” she asked, her voice low and dangerous.

Well, better late than never, Ullr thought.  
*  
“Your mother is interesting,” Phil said as they watched Thor, Sif, and the Warrior Three return to Asgard. “Would they be returning? And for that matter, shouldn’t you go with them?”

“Well, if things are really bad as mom said they are, then it’s more likely that I wouldn’t be much of help. I did leave Asgard long time ago… As for returning, there’s a good chance that they might be forbidden by the Allfather from coming back,” Clint admitted. “I don’t know for sure. I’ve lost connection with them, you know. Cut off all contact.”

“Why?”

“It… seemed neater. Disappear completely. Pretend I was never part of that family.”

“But you miss them,” Phil said.

Clint grinned. “You know me too well. I wouldn’t mind visiting them sometimes…. Come with me?”

They never got the chance to. The Bifröst was broken and no matter how many times Ullr screamed for Heimdall to open the Rainbow Bridge, there was no answer. Ullr was stranded on Midgard; this time not by choice.  
*  
Telling Phil who he was was one of the best decisions that Ullr had made in his life. Now two of his favorite people knew who he was, why he was there, and there was no need to hide anything anymore. Of course, it didn’t mean much when Heimdall wasn’t opening the Bridge and Ullr couldn’t show Natasha and Phil his home and his family.

It kind of sucked.  
*  
“Please tell me this is a sick fucking joke,” Clint said as he stared at the Tesseract. “Why the hell didn’t anyone tell me that the Tesseract’s here?!”

Fury gave him a flat look. “Because you never mentioned that you were actually a Norse God of Archery.”

Well, put it that way, Clint supposed that Fury had every right.

“Help the scientists figure out how to make it work,” Fury ordered.

It sounded like easy enough job. Ullr wished that his childhood training had included how to make a magical cube that could potential send him home work.  
*  
“Well, the Tesseract’s a door,” Clint explained to Fury. “And doors open both ways.”

Then the whole room flashed blue and there was a single figure sitting. He slowly looked up and smirked.

“I think you’re fucked,” Clint whispered to Fury.

“Why? You know him?”

“That would be Loki,” he said, looking a little awkward at this situation. “He’s my dad. And you know, if he’s here to screw you over, I’ll be required by family laws to help him out.”

Fury glared at him with his one eye. “What?”

Loki looked up and glared at the two. “Ullr,” he said.

And he didn’t need to say anything more, because Ullr was at his side, ready to help him out. The two very easily overwhelmed the SHIELD agents, Ullr making small snarking remarks to his father all along the way. Taking the Tesseract and Selvig, the two gods left the base, exchanging gunshots with Maria Hill along the way.

All in all, Ullr thought it went rather well.  
*  
“Dad, this plan is stupid and you’re going to get caught by SHIELD, if not the Avengers,” Ullr said as he organized yet another group of soldiers for his father. “If this is a desperate cry to mom for her attention-”

“I liked you better when you were a little brat, who never questioned me,” Loki groaned.  
*  
Loki glared at the woman in front of him. According to his son, her name was Natasha Romanoff and she could very easily destroy anyone, battle-wise or not. But the God of Mischief wasn’t worried. His son was young and inexperienced; Loki would show him.

“What’s your plan for Barton?” Romanoff demanded.

“The whole world hangs on balance and you bargain for the life of one man?” Loki asked. Granted, it was the life of his son, so he supposed he was a little biased about this.

“Regimes fall all the time,” she said with a shrug. “I tend not to cry over that; I’m Russian.”

Loki could really see why Ullr had taken such strong liking to this woman.

“Besides,” she continued, “I highly doubt that Ullr would allow you to hurt me.”

“Why’s that?”

She smirked at him like a shark. “Because I’m his high priest.”  
*  
No one told Loki what Phil Coulson looked like. And to be truthful, it wasn’t like the guy tried to shake his hand and introduce himself. So when Ullr, his own son, pointed an arrow at his eye, Loki couldn’t help but to grimace.

“Ullr, put that away before you hurt someone,” he said after asking for a drink.

It was only then that Thor flipped out. “Ullr?!” he exclaimed. “Why haven’t you said anything?”

The God of Archery continued to point the arrow at Loki. “Dad,” he said (and promptly ignored all the looks of disbelief and shouts of, “WHAT?!” from the other Avengers minus Natasha), “What the fuck? You killed Phil.”

“Phil?”

“The guy you fucking _stabbed_. We had a deal. You don’t hurt Nat and Phil. You broke it.” _And my heart,_ he added mentally.

“… Have you ever met your half-siblings?” Loki asked suddenly. “Or visit Hel?”

Clint frowned. “Why would I go to the realm of the dead…?”

It was Thor’s turn to be stunned. “You didn’t know that Hela, the ruler of Hel, is Loki’s daughter?”

There was a small pause. Then, with a determined fire, Clint put his bow down. “Dad, fake-father, we’re going to have a family reunion.”  
*  
Phil shook his head in mild exasperation. “Even in death, I’m not free of you, am I?”

Clint wrapped his arms around his shoulders. “Of course not! I’m never letting you go off on your own ever again!”

Watching the two of them, Sif couldn’t help but to smile softly. If there was one thing that she did right, it was that her son grew up to be a proud warrior in love. But there were still other mistakes that she had to make up for. One other person that she had to apologize to.

She glanced over at Loki, who looked like he had aged a few centuries in the short amount of time that he had been gone. She hadn’t exactly been fair to him, had she? Ullr was their child, and they had both missed out a good chunk of his life due to her fears. She had been foolish to pull away from him. And he had been even more foolish to have allowed it to happen, to have gone out of his way to control all of Asgard and Midgard for her. She was certain that she should feel disappointed, angry. Instead, all she could feel is the certain fondness that she had felt when they had first met, a certain feeling tinged with love and hope.

Feeling someone’s eyes on him, Loki looked up and the two’s eyes met. She offered him a smile and he shyly returned one of his own.

Well, she supposed they’ll have eternities to figure things out between them.


End file.
